Book Review: 'War and Peace' by Leo Tolstoy

‘War and Peace’ by Leo Tolstoy

Having finished Genesis, this seemed a good time to pause my Bible study notes, so I can post my review for ‘War and Peace’.

‘Tolstoy’s epic masterpiece intertwines the lives of private and public individuals during the time of the Napoleonic wars and the French invasion of Russia. The fortunes of the Rostovs and the Bolkonskys, of Pierre, Natasha, and Andrei, are intimately connected with the national history that is played out in parallel with their lives. Balls and soirées alternate with councils of war and the machinations of statesmen and generals, scenes of violent battles with everyday human passions in a work whose extraordinary imaginative power has never been surpassed. The prodigious cast of characters, both great and small, seem to act and move as if connected by threads of destiny as the novel relentlessly questions ideas of free will, fate, and providence. Yet Tolstoy’s portrayal of marital relations and scenes of domesticity is as truthful and poignant as the grand themes that underlie them…’

This book took me about two months to read.

As I mentioned in a previous post on ‘Reading Classics…’, I embarked on this tome being mindful of reading it slowly.

After about the halfway point, I realised I was reading more than 12 pages a day, not because I was forcing myself to, but because there was enough going on that I just kept reading.

To be completely transparent, as I neared the end, my reading had sped up even more mainly because I wanted to be done with it, and the reason for that I’ll mention later.

This review will be different to my usual reviews in that I won’t be talking much about the story or any one character as there are so many of them; also, I find it hard to discuss this book and keep it spoiler-free.

Besides, there are many reviews out there that talk about the story and the characters.

Tolstoy began writing ‘War and Peace’ in 1863, and it was published in 1869.

He set it in the early 1800s, concentrating on the period from 1805 to 1820, focusing on 1812 when Napoleon invaded Russia.

Aside from reading the history of the wars, and letters, journals, and biographies of the key players, Tolstoy also spoke with people who had lived through the 1812 invasion.

He was also able to draw on his own battle experience as he’d served in the Crimean War, and his description of war and fighting in the book are quite vivid.

Tolstoy wrote in Russian and French, and in the translation I read, the French is part of the narrative.

Even though I don’t speak French, I didn’t find it off-putting as the English translation was at the bottom of the page, so each time I came across a French passage, I’d just look down to the translation; anything that needed a translation was at the bottom of the relevant page.

The reason French was spoken in Russia at that time was because Catherine the Great had made it the language of her royal court, and in the following years, it became a social requirement for Russian nobility to speak French.

In fact, not many of the nobility spoke fluent Russian.

At the end of the book, there’s about 30 pages of explanatory notes, which I found helpful, especially from a historical standpoint.

Although there’s a huge cast of characters, fictional and real, the story focusses on four aristocratic families – the Rostovs, the Bolkonskys, the Bezukhovs and the Kuragins.

But Tolstoy doesn’t only write about these families; he also shares his thoughts on history and how it should be written, and philosophy.

He introduces many of his main characters in the opening chapters, in quite a clever way, I thought – at a party as each of them arrive.

As I said before in that previous post, I was surprised to find the book easy to read, right from the start, without any of the ‘dark heaviness’ I tend to associate with Russian literature.

It took me a while to realise, with the huge cast of characters, there is no single ‘hero’ or ‘heroine’; in a way, it’s a bit ‘slice-of-life’ with the focus characters.

I didn’t have a favourite character as such, but, overall, my favourite family was the Bolkonskys, even the curmudgeonly old count.

In Book One, I liked the Rostovs too, especially the young ones.

Overall, I liked the historical side of the book most, and Book Three was my favourite of all, and that’s probably not surprising as I do like history, and I am somewhat familiar with the wars mentioned here.

And what I’ve read has only whetted my appetite to learn more about those wars and the personalities involved.

Tolstoy doesn’t focus so much on the personalities making the decisions and directing the course of the battles, focusing instead on the effects of war on the common soldier, showing how senseless war is.

It is the soldier who pays the ultimate price for the decisions made by, usually, lesser men who happen to be in power.

I found Tolstoy’s thoughts on how war and history should be written, which is different from how it’s usually recorded, fascinating food for thought.

Another thing I enjoyed is the way he wrote about Christianity; it didn’t feel jarring or preachy.

I have to say, one thing I was not expecting to find was Tolstoy’s scathing dismantling of Freemasonry.

Actually, there was yet another thing I was not expecting – humour, none of which I can share as, looking back through my notes, I find, to my annoyance, I didn’t make a note of any.

I enjoyed the writing; Tolstoy’s use of visual detail has been described as cinematic, and I agree.

He moves between the different characters and their stories easily.

The way he writes their interactions, the way they say and do things, gives the reader the impression that they’re right there with the characters.

Also, the way many of them change their minds from one minute to the next, and misremember conversations is so real and adds to the characters coming across as quite human.

The enjoyment I felt reading the book stayed with me until one character, especially, and the reactions of others to that one, began to grate, after which I looked forward to and enjoyed the historical parts of the narrative more, and began to care less for the characters, which I did mind, but hey ho, such is the way of the fussy reader.

Interesting side note, for me anyway – St. Petersburg was the capital of Russia at that time, having taken the title from Moscow, which came to be regarded as provincial, and was looked down on by St. Petersburg society.

I’ll finish with a selection of Tolstoy’s descriptive writing:
‘It was a warm, rainy, autumnal day. The wide expanse that opened out before the heights on which the Russian batteries stood guarding the bridge, was at times veiled by a diaphanous curtain of slanting rain, and then, suddenly spread out in the sunlight, far-distant objects could be clearly seen glittering as though freshly varnished.’

‘… it was as if the sky were melting and sinking to the earth without any wind. The only motion in the air was that of the dripping, microscopic particles of drizzling mist.’

‘As soon as he opened the shutters the moonlight, as if it had long been watching for this, burst into the room… Just before the window was a row of pollard-trees, looking black on one side and with a silvery light on the other.’

During a battle: ‘One cannon-ball, another, and a third, flew over him, falling in front, beside, and behind him… Suddenly a terrible concussion threw him backwards to the ground. At the same instant he was dazzled by a great flash of flame, and immediately a deafening roar, crackling and whistling, made his ears tingle.’

Describing the Great Comet of 1811/12: ‘… immense expanse of dark starry sky… Almost in the centre of it… surrounded and sprinkled on all sides by stars but distinguished from them all by its nearness to the earth, its white light, and its long uplifted tail, shone the enormous and brilliant comet of the year 1812… like an arrow piercing the earth…’

Will I read ‘War and Peace’ again?

Yes, most definitely, though not for a couple of years.

And while I, personally, wouldn’t class it as one of my favourites, there’s enough in it that I found enjoyable and parts that made me stop and think to make it a worthwhile re-read.